Tag Archives: Alaska’s Board of Fisheries

Alaska’s Board of Fisheries voted 5-2 Saturday to not approve a new type of commercial chum salmon fishing gear in the lower Yukon River. In one of the board’s most contested decisions of its five-day meeting, the regulatory body was against opening the river to purse seining, a method that involves encircling a group of fish with a net and pulling it closed like a purse. Fishermen from upriver communities like Tanana and Manley Hot Springs opposed the purse seine opening out of concern that purse seiners would injure king salmon inadvertently swept up with the chum salmon. Read the article here 09:12

ANCHORAGE—Gov. Bill Walker’s Boards and Commissions Director Karen Gillis has left her position amid growing controversy over a Board of Fisheries seat that has yet to be successfully filled. Walker, who is required by Alaska Statute to appoint a person to the seat by May 19, has previously appointed two candidates to the open seat; neither has lasted longer than a month. Though staff in the governor’s office confirmed Gillis’ departure, they have refused to discuss when she left, or release an updated list of candidates for the open seat. Read the rest here 09:33

A Kenai Peninsula resident known for his habitat advocacy has applied to be on Alaska’s Board of Fisheries. Robert Ruffner is a 19-year resident of Soldotna and has supervised dozens of culvert and fish passage projects on the Kenai Peninsula. Ruffner, who has not actively participated in fisheries politics on one side of the sport, commercial, or personal-use fishing battle over Cook Inlet fish, could be a less polarizing figure. Read the rest here 08:47

Fishermen and other stakeholders are asking Alaska’s Board of Fisheries to consider 162 proposals to change subsistence, commercial, personal use and sport regulations in fisheries throughout the state during the 2014-2015 meeting cycle. Read more here 18:55

Three incumbent members of Alaska’s Board of Fisheries were unanimously confirmed, after a Chugiak representative withdraw his objection to the two commercial fishers on the board. Read more here 19:43

Alaska’s Board of Fisheries took action on a handful of Yukon River and Bristol Bay salmon management proposals today. The board is holding its statewide king and tanner crab meeting in Anchorage, and the agenda includes certain issues in other fisheries. Read more here 15:36

The board is tasked with discussing 48 proposals. Those address commercial, sport and subsistence fishing for a wide-swath of state fisheries near the Alaska Peninsula. The majority of the proposals address commercial fishing. Read more

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

Fisheries and Watersheds: Food Security, Education and Sustainability Future concerns about Alaska’s marine resources, particularly the fisheries, revolve around the status of research and education and Read More »